Day 21 - Calama / Salta (Argentina)

We spent three incredibly beautiful and varied weeks in Chile, but now we wanted to continue north to Argentina. For the roughly 620km journey to Salta, we decided to hop on the long-distance bus across the border, with a planned travel time of a measly 12 hours.

At 5:00 a.m., the alarm finally rang, ending the restless night. Due to the information on the internet and from the lady at the reception that the bus station is not entirely safe in the dark, there was a certain excitement with us. The taxi was very late, the driver was absolutely unfriendly, and upon arrival at the terminal, there was no bus in sight. We wandered around a bit, hoping no one would approach us, and just before 6 a.m., our bus finally arrived. In hindsight, it was not as bad as we feared, and we started towards Argentina with a slight delay. During the longer stop in San Pedro, after about an hour of driving, a bunch of tourists boarded and the bus filled up. The landscape was absolutely stunning along the entire route, but Chris didn't see much of it and slept almost continuously. At the border crossing into Argentina, the usual procedure repeated: everyone gets off, take your luggage, check out with the Chilean authority, check in with Argentina, get your luggage checked, and back to the bus.

Most of the passengers went shopping at the kiosk, and after about an hour, we could continue our journey. Gradually, the vegetation also changed, we passed through various passes, Ines spotted the first llamas/alpacas, and we crossed the largest salt lake in Argentina. The bus felt like it was endlessly winding down the mountain, and after about eleven hours of driving, we had to switch to another bus for the first time. The old one had been beeping continuously since Calama. Finally, after about 13.5 hours from departure, we finally reached the bus terminal in Salta. We hopped into a taxi and quickly headed to the hotel, where after a short walk to the supermarket, we fell dead tired into bed.